Social Security Suspends Annual Statements

April 4, 2011 RSS Feed Print
  • Comment (33)

The Social Security Administration has recently decided to stop mailing annual Social Security statements to workers to save money. Suspending mailings for all workers over age 25 beginning this month is expected to save approximately $30 million in fiscal year 2011 and $60 million in 2012.

[See 10 Ways to Boost Your Social Security Checks.]

“These annual Statements cost us approximately $70 million each year to print and mail,” SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue told a Senate appropriations committee in March. “In order to conserve funds, we will suspend the current contract and stop sending out these statements.”

Statements were previously sent out about three months before your birthday, so workers born in July or later won’t get a paper statement this year. SSA plans to eventually resume mailing statements to people age 60 and over. The agency is working on an online option for younger workers to download their statements.

[See 4 Social Security Changes Coming in 2011.]

SSA mailed out 152 million Social Security statements to workers in fiscal year 2010. These 4-page mailings list your entire earnings record and give you an estimate of your expected retirement benefit, the approximate amount you will get each month if you become disabled, and how much your family will receive if you die in the coming year. The statements also give a concise overview of the program and allow you to check your recorded earnings and taxes paid for errors.

Workers can get an estimate of their retirement benefits online using SSA’s retirement estimator tool. But this tool does not provide all the information that appears in the written statement, such as estimates of disability and survivor’s benefits and your complete earnings record. And young workers who don’t yet have the 40 credits of work necessary to qualify for a retirement payout can’t use the tool yet.

[See 12 Ways to Fix Social Security.]

SSA began mailing statements to all workers age 25 and older on Oct. 1, 1999, due to provisions of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989. The law specifically outlined what information needs to be included in the mailing. The statements were intended to educate workers about their benefits, allow employees the opportunity to review the accuracy of their earnings record, and be a financial planning tool to help individuals make retirement decisions. These statements were mailed only to individuals age 60 and older between 1995 and 1999. Statements have been available upon request since 1988. Social Security benefit statements were the largest customized mailing ever undertaken by a Federal agency.

Twitter: @aiming2retire

Tags:
retirement

Reader Comments Read all comments (33)

Add Your Thoughts
Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.

WHY THE SOCIAL SECURITY DONT SEND OUT STATEMENT ANYMORE, MOST PEOPLES DONT HAVE A COMPUTERS

SUSIE FINKLEA of AL 11:19AM June 22, 2012

I loved to receive them and keep them together in a folder. If it means that it

is saving millions then that's okay with me not to get one. I hope they are putting

that money saved into the social security fund and not into the hands of a

congressman on capital hill. We need our social security when we retire in 2025.

lee pearl of TN 4:45PM June 15, 2012

Regarding the the ending line of my comments I ask kindly that the typos be overlooked by all who read , ire and speed conspired to make them occur.

Good luck Fellow citizens ... we citizens like those of ancient Rome are being directed toward the precipice while accepting without a hiccup all that is forced down our collecrtive throats . No people or nation can survive or prosper if neither learns from the historical record . America is not immune from succumbing in like fashion by all that has been done wrong in other nations past or present . Government is by definition servant to the people who create it in order to form a national identiy to be called what people decide .People are not servants nor serfs of those who have turned the type of government which they agreed to adopt ,trust, and respect , into a nation of its own that not only seeks its proliferation , its own lavish income and benefits at great costs to the very people who sustain it while gesturing the saving of insigificant expenditures such as the Social Security Statement in most cases a must have document if one is to have another means of proof of what is rightfully theirs. The government squandering of the Social Security Fund is an abomination and clearly a 2nd grader can grasp the severity of the crime . Why should any citizen trust cyberpsace ? A key stroke can erase important documentation of one`s life just long enough to make his or her life so umbearable that for many it nets nervous breakdowns or worse and if one lis lucky enough to regain control it usually costs them every nickel they ever saved. People should never forget that this or any other government is made up of a range of employees which runs the gambit from the totally incompetent to the totally cavalier and neither should ever be allowed to serve.

We citizens have settled for this and its time we free ourselves of this nonsense

let your votes count and ask accountability from any agency that was created to serve the people but now operates by any other definition .

The elected officials who have no intention of giving up a gig like congress will move to do the will of the people which is what our system of governemnt is supposed to symbolize above that of any other in the world ancient or modern if so prodded .... prod , poke , write letters to , and demand restoration ... acquiescence means giving up sovreignty , do so before they pass laws that remove sovereignty form people and make the machine of government sovereign , the new monarchy in a part of the world whereupon none has ever existed..Let that happen and Presidents will be kings ,senators will be Counts , representatives will be Dukes, and with the rest that remains named any of the old titles from lords to squires, life for the avarage American will be thrice harder than any serf under Henry the 8th `s yoke ... cannot see the analogy? wake up !

joseph DiCarlo of MA 12:54PM January 24, 2012

Planning to Retire

Senior editor Emily Brandon tells you how to get ready financially for retirement and to make your golden years the best they can be.

advertisement

Our retirement readiness calculator will provide a rough idea of how long your retirement savings and income will last.


advertisement